already acquired, or rather invented, that peculiar smoothness of his numbers, which has ever since formed his principal claim to poetic fame. Pope designated him as the predecessor of Dryden, in the art of giving melody to verse "Britain to soft refinements less a foe, Wit grew polite, and numbers learned to flow; The long majestic march, and energy divine." In a conversation with Aubrey, Waller once observed that it was the idea of remedying the harshness of English poetry which first induced him to turn his attention to versification. "Methought," said he, "when I was a brisk young sparke, I never saw a good copie of English verses, they wanted smoothnesse; so I began to essay; I could not versify always when I wished, but when the fitt came on I could do it easily.” The metrical harmony of Waller's numbers does not appear to have improved by practice. His first pieces. display as great a felicity of execution as his last, for as one of his biographers justly remarks, "Where we to judge only by the wording, we could not tell what he wrote at twenty, and what at fourscore." Waller, like many of his brother poets of the Caroline era, was not free from the cardinal vice of dragging mythological concerts into his verse, and comparing every hero, whose panegyric he undertook, with halfa-dozen celebrities of fiction, from the fabulous and mythic tales of the profane writers. Nothing can be more tame or feeble, than a succession of these extravagant and fantastical parallels, which so far from giving a sublimity or elevation to the subject, generally produce quite the contrary effect. Cowley, Cleveland, Donne, Denham, and indeed all his contemporaries, are full of this affectation for classical allusion to the ancient world-a topic, which, when so repeatedly introduced, and so incessantly presented, degenerates into a pedantry of the most vulgar and offensive character. To speak of a soldier, without referring to Mars, or to praise a beauty, without resembling her to Venus, would have been impossible; indeed, language was not considered poetry, until studded with these mystic celebrities of the pagan philosophy, and groaning under the weight of heathen gods. Waller, perhaps, imbibed this taste for the ancient writers, from the intimate acquaintance he preserved with Morley, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, who, when young, and without preferment in the church, had been a constant inmate of the poet's house, and almost a dependent upon his bounty. But whatever might have been the accident which directed his curiosity to the main sources of classical knowledge, it is certain that he always showed himself both by his writings as well as his conversation, remarkably familiar with the works of ancient literature, and that he quoted them upon many occasions with great felicity and discernment. Having established a double fame by the display of his poetical and political accomplishments, Waller next distinguished himself in the realms of fashion, by carrying off a rich heiress, and thus defeating a rival whose pretensions to the lady had been seconded already acquired, or rather invented, that peculiar smoothness of his numbers, which has ever since formed his principal claim to poetic fame. Pope designated him as the predecessor of Dryden, in the art of giving melody to verse "Britain to soft refinements less a foe, Wit grew polite, and numbers learned to flow; The long majestic march, and energy divine." In a conversation with Aubrey, Waller once observed that it was the idea of remedying the harshness of English poetry which first induced him to turn his attention to versification. "Methought," said he," when I was a brisk young sparke, I never saw a good copie of English verses, they wanted smoothnesse; so I began to essay; I could not versify always when I wished, but when the fitt came on I could do it easily." The metrical harmony of Waller's numbers does not appear to have improved by practice. His first pieces display as great a felicity of execution as his last, for as one of his biographers justly remarks, "Where we to judge only by the wording, we could not tell what he wrote at twenty, and what at fourscore." Waller, like many of his brother poets of the Caroline era, was not free from the cardinal vice of dragging mythological concerts into his verse, and comparing every hero, whose panegyric he undertook, with halfa-dozen celebrities of fiction, from the fabulous and mythic tales of the profane writers. Nothing can be more tame or feeble, than a succession of these extravagant and fantastical parallels, which so far from giving a sublimity or elevation to the subject, generally produce quite the contrary effect. Cowley, Cleveland, Donne, Denham, and indeed all his contemporaries, are full of this affectation for classical allusion to the ancient world—a topic, which, when so repeatedly introduced, and so incessantly presented, degenerates into a pedantry of the most vulgar and offensive character. To speak of a soldier, without referring to Mars, or to praise a beauty, without resembling her to Venus, would have been impossible; indeed, language was not considered poetry, until studded with these mystic celebrities of the pagan philosophy, and groaning under the weight of heathen gods. Waller, perhaps, imbibed this taste for the ancient writers, from the intimate acquaintance he preserved with Morley, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, who, when young, and without preferment in the church, had been a constant inmate of the poet's house, and almost a dependent upon his bounty. But whatever might have been the accident which directed his curiosity to the main sources of classical knowledge, it is certain that he always showed himself both by his writings as well as his conversation, remarkably familiar with the works of ancient literature, and that he quoted them upon many occasions with great felicity and discernment. Having established a double fame by the display of his poetical and political accomplishments, Waller next distinguished himself in the realms of fashion, by carrying off a rich heiress, and thus defeating a rival whose pretensions to the lady had been seconded and warmly espoused by the court. It is not difficult to conceive that he must have proved a dangerous foe in such an encounter-his agreeable manner, his literary reputation, and his position in the world affording him a combination of advantages which few persons then possessed. This lady, the daughter of Edward Banks, Esq., a rich merchant in the City, did not live long to enjoy her good fortune, for having given birth to a son and daughter, she died in child-bed, leaving her husband a widower at the age of five-and-twenty, with all the world before him to choose. Whether he had married from a sincere affection, or merely for the purpose of acquiring the property which his wife's portion produced, cannot now be ascertained. He does not, however, appear to have solicited that natural retirement, or to have courted that laudable seclusion from the world, which he might have been expected to observe upon the occurrence of such a melancholy event. Nor has he left any tributary verse to the memory of this lady, although at the death of Lady Rich and the Countess of Northumberland, he attempted to inscribe their virtues upon what he was pleased to term an eternal monument of praise. Upon the accession of Charles the First, Waller appeared at court, and in the first parliament of this monarch, which assembled in 1625, he represented Chipping Wycombe. The unhappy fate of Buckingham prompted him to eulogise Charles in a poem, where particular emphasis is laid upon the fortitude which the King displayed on hearing the news of |